Otter 407 was delivered to the RCAF on 27th December 1960 with serial 9424. It was allocated to No.6 Repair Depot as a spare and put into storage at the Dunnville, Ontario depot. On 23rd November 1961 it was assigned to 418 Squadron, Namao where it served until 11th January 1962 when it was re-assigned to 400 Squadron at Downsview. After some months service there, it was selected for service with 116 Air Transport Unit (ATU) on United Nations duties in New Guinea and in August 1962 was flown to Trenton where it was made ready, along with 9423 (405), which was also going to New Guinea. Both Otters were put on amphibious floats and painted all white with large UN titles. They were loaded on board RCAF Hercules, departing 30th August 1962 and flown to Biak, New Guinea where they were re-assembled and entered service with 116 ATU.

On 27th April 1963 the two Otters were again loaded into RCAF Hercules for the long trip home, their mission in New Guinea accomplished. Both were flown to Calgary, arriving 8th May 1963, where they were put into storage at the Canadian Pacific Airlines depot at Lincoln Park. In February 1964 9424 was assigned to RCAF Station Namao for the period March to July 1964 and it was then transferred to 401 Squadron at St. Hubert, Montreal. On 27th September 1965 it joined 102 Communications Unit at Trenton, moving on to 4 Operational Training Unit (OTU), also at Trenton, on 24th August 1966. While serving with 4 OTU, 9424 was involved in a 'B' category incident on 18th September 1967 in the course of a training detail. After take-off, with climb flap selected, the pilot closed the throttle to simulate en engine failure from an altitude of 200 feet above the water. During the subsequent practice forced landing, he did not achieve the desired indicated airspeed of 65 knots. The aircraft was rotated at 60 knots for landing and although the pilot opened the throttle, he was unable to arrest the high sink rate. The Otter touched down heavily, causing considerable damage.

9424 was taken to 6 Repair Depot for repair on 22nd September 1967 and after a slow rebuild, when it had been restored to airworthy condition, was assigned on 28th April 1971 to 401 Squadron at St.Hubert, also used by 438 Squadron. While serving with 401 Squadron, another incident is recorded on 26th February 1978 again on a training detail. On completion of a successful clearhood mission, the instructor demonstrated to the student how to perform a STOL landing. A complete briefing was carried out on the downwind portion of the circuit. Speed was maintained at 60 knots on final to a point 200 feet above the ground over the threshold for a simulated obstacle clearance landing. At that time, the throttle was closed and the nose lowered, the speed decayed to 55 knots and power was applied while a roundout was attempted. The engine did not respond but a three point attitude was attained on impact with a high rate of descent. The aircraft bounced as the engine finally responded and a controlled smooth landing was achieved. The pilot attempted to turn off the active runway, but heard a noise of skis scraping the runway and fuel fumes were smelled. The tower was informed and the engine shut down and the aircraft evacuated.

Once again, 9424 was brought to 6 Repair Depot at Trenton for damage from the hard landing to be repaired and on completion of the work, on 15th May 1978 was issued to 438 Squadron at St. Hubert. It continued to fly for 438 Squadron until 30th January 1981 when it was flown to the Mountain View depot and put into storage. It was put up for disposal through the Crown Assets Disposal Corporation and was one of a number of Otters sold at auction in February 1982. It was advertised for sale with a total airframe time of 5,388 hours. It was one of seven Otters purchased by Newcal Aviation Inc of Little Ferry, New Jersey, to whom the Otter was registered N3125S in June 1982. These Otters were ferried from Mountain View to an airstrip at Decatur, Texas where they were put into open storage. It appears that the market for Otters was poor at the time, as these Otters were to spend several years in store at Decatur before being sold on.

In October 1988 N3125S was sold to Kenmore Air Harbor Inc of Kenmore, Washington, in the northern part of Seattle. For the summer of 1989 it was leased to Ward Air and operated from their base at Juneau, Alaska. It then re-joined the Kenmore Air fleet. It was subsequently converted to a Vazar turbine Otter and flies as part of Kenmore Air's large fleet of turbine Otters, on their scheduled services. During summer 2002, it sported a 'logo' colour scheme, carrying the University of Washington 'Huskies' paint scheme. It was still in service with Kenmore Air during summer 2004, having received the scenic windows conversion, and sporting a “Seattle Hospitality” logo colour scheme.

Additional information provided by Karl after completion of the DVD

Some additional historical information has become available, taken from “Success on the Step”, the excellent history of Kenmore Air. N3125S was the company’s first Otter and was purchased as Kenmore Air needed a larger aircraft, as passenger loads often exceeded what a Beaver could carry. The market for Otters was apparently soft at that time during the 1980s, when an Otter on floats could be had for $100,000 and on wheels for much less. A Kenmore Beaver at the time cost upwards of $300,000. Newcal Aviation had purchased seven surplus Otters from the Canadian military, which had been sitting in open storage at Decatur, Texas for some years. Early in 1988 Kenmore Air noticed an advertisement for the sale of these Otters and arranged to buy N3125S. It had 600 hours life left on its engine, so the company figured they could fly it for three years before the expense of an overhaul would arise. A Kenmore pilot was dispatched to Decatur, picked up the Otter, which was still in CAF colours and on wheels, and flew it to the Renton Airport in Seattle. Rather than incur the substantial cost of dismantling the Otter and bringing it by barge to Kenmore Air Harbor, it was decided to fly the Otter to Kenmore and land it in a freight yard beside the Air Harbor, but which was only 700 feet long. This was done on 2 June 1988, the book providing a fine description of the landing, achieved on the third attempt, the Otter grinding to a halt after heavy breaking in a cloud of dust just feet from the boundary fence. According to the manufacturer, the Otter’s minimum landing distance is 810 feet, but N3125S had achieved its dramatic arrival in less than 700 feet. The Otter was then lifted by crane across a water channel into the Kenmore Air Harbor yard and put on Bristol 71710 floats. It was registered to Kenmore Air Harbor Inc in October 1988 and entered service. It apparently did not have sufficient power to fly off Lake Union and so was only used flying services from the larger Lake Washington. For the summer of 1989 and again in 1990, N3125S went on lease to Ward Air in Alaska, flying out of Juneau. It flew again for Kenmore Air for the summer of 1991, but over the winter of 1991/92 was converted to a Vazar turbine with the PT-6 engine. It has been in service with Kenmore Air ever since. It has sported a series of “logo” colour schemes. During the summer of 2002 it had the University of Washington “Huskies” paint scheme. During summer 2004, having received the scenic windows conversion, it sported a “Seattle Hospitality” scheme and for summer 2006 & 2007 had a “metronatural.com” logo scheme, this being Seattle’s Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Over the years some incidents have been recorded on CADORS:

13 November 2009.  On arrival at Victoria Harbour from Kenmore, N3125S struck a log in the water on roll out with the left float. It was able to continue to the dock where it was inspected but no damage was found and it could continue in service.

5 September 2011.  Landing at Victoria Harbour on a flight from Kenmore, the Otter reported a bird strike on landing and two dead geese were found.

January 2012.   After Otter N765KA (26) had entered service, N3125S was advertised for sale. It was on EDO7490 straight floats, with a PT6A-135A engine. Total time was 19,528 hours. Asking price was $1,250,000.  The Otter did not sell and continued in service with Kenmore Air. It was again advertised for sale in December 2012 as a “Well equipped air taxi Otter”, total time 19,988 hours, asking price $1,600,000. Again, it did not sell and continued in service.

CADORS 18 June 2014.  The Otter was taking off from Victoria Harbour for return to Seattle-Kenmore. It started to slide and aborted take-off due to water rudder problems. It tried again and aborted. The problem was solved and it later took off successfully to return to Kenmore.

N3125S was still in service with Kenmore Air summer 2018.

Now in Ketchikan, Alaska - operating for Seawind Aviation. Arrived 04-Apr-2023.

To be updated.

Full history up to 2005 courtesy of Karl E Hayes © from DHC-3 Otter - A History (CD-ROM 2005), now with added and updated information which Karl has supplied for the benefit of the website.